LIVERPOOL Football Club today (Wednesday, October 8) unveiled plans for its #80m super-stadium.

The planning application for a 60,000-seat arena in Stanley Park was landing on the desks of city planners this morning.

They were submitted as Liverpool FC chief executive Rick Parry delivered the strongest signal yet that proposals for a stadium-share with Everton look doomed.

Depending on planning approval, work on the Reds's new stadium could start as early as May, with the first match being played in 2006.

The stadium is part of a #120m investment by the club into Anfield, which LFC bosses say will transform north Liverpool and kick-start a massive wave of regeneration.

Unveiling the plans, reds chief executive Rick Parry said: "This is so much more than just a stadium. It is absolutely fitting a capital of culture city and is a beacon project.

"We want people to visit Anfield and spend money in Anfield.

"The Nou Camp Stadium in Barcelona attracts 1 million people a year. Why shouldn't we be the same?"

The arena will house 15,000 more fans than Anfield and be built on a car park next to Arkles Road.

One of the two end stands will almost certainly be called the Kop and the club's Shankley and Paisley gates will be moved to the new site.

There will be a car park underneath the stadium with 900 spaces and an underground tunnel will allow team coaches to drop off players beneath the stadium.

The Vernon Sangster sports centre on Arkles Road will be demolished but will be replaced by a sports hall and public gym facilities within the stadium.

The complex will also house a mini campus for Liverpool Hope University College.

The education centre will have lecture rooms and run courses in subjects such as sports management and the management of open spaces.

The club will also move its ground-breaking reducate computer room for local schools to its new ground.

The computer suite will have 30 terminals and be used by primary and secondary pupils.

The ground floor of one of the stands will also house a new and extended LFC museum and a hall of fame.

Outside the arena a memorial garden will built to commemorate former Liverpool fans who have had their ashes scattered over the Anfield turf.

As well as the first team changing rooms, a second set of changing rooms will be built within the stadium for teams playing in weekend games on Stanley Park.

Rick Parry today said the stadium would be funded entirely by the club. The #80m construction costs would be borrowed against the projected increase in revenue the larger arena would provide.

He said the new ground would earn the club an extra #12m to #13m a year and would pay off its cost after around 15 years.

A fixed priced contract with building company Carrillion meant construction costs would not rocket.

He said: "In many respects it is a unique stadium. But what we had to get right was the balance between something we can be proud of in future years and something which is economically viable.

Three years ago the club planned to build a 70,000 seater stadium with an American-style bowl design.

Mr Parry added: "We started at 70,000 because that would have given us the biggest stadium in the country.

"But looking at the economics, that stadium itself would cost in the region of #130m and there were more transport implications which was another obligation for us."

He said LFC had carried out assessments on seven brownfield sites, including one in Speke and one at the central docks.

All were deemed inappropriate and he added that planning permission was unlikely to be granted for a stadium on central docks.

The name for the new stadium has not yet been formally decided but Mr Parry said: "The presumption is that it will be called Anfield - why would it be anything else?"

Council leader Mike Storey said: "This application will be subject to the normal planning procedures. However, what we are looking for is for the stadium to be the catalyst for the regeneration of Anfield and Breckfield.

"We are looking for improvements in education facilities, a better environment, health facilities and generally a better quality of life for the people who live there."